In 2009, then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm touted the $725 million Wixom renewable energy park project as “symbolic for Michigan in what we’re going to become.”

The new solar power companies were supposed to create 4,000 jobs in a closed auto assembly plant and provide a vivid example of Michigan’s economic transition from automobiles to green energy. In return the state approved a $100 million tax credit.

Michigan Capitol Confidential took a look back at the nine solar power companies that were approved for state tax credits. Many have fizzled with reports that the companies are laying off employees at a time they were supposed to have been adding jobs.

For example, in 2009 a company from Georgia called Suniva announced it planned to open a $250 million manufacturing plant in Saginaw County. It was to add 500 jobs.

Evergreen Solar opened a solar plant in Midland in 2009. The company announced in August it was filing for bankruptcy.

Gov. Granholm touted Suniva and Evergreen Solar in a Feb. 25, 2010, Huffington Post column in which she wrote, “Last May, I first posted here about how Michigan would lead the green industrial revolution. Some folks scoffed at that idea. They said I was too optimistic. They said Michigan would never lead in a green economy. We're working to prove them wrong.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan produced as many as 1,160 solar energy-related jobs in 2010. The state has 3.8 million jobs.

“Despite over a decade of subsidizing solar projects, the state has little to show for it,” said James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Obamacare repeal-and-replace is underway, and regardless of whether it passes or fails big, changes are coming for Michigan’s medical services and insurance industry, and the state’s social welfare system, especially Medicaid.

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